The story of Feb. 12, for the Falcons, really starts with their new GM, Terry Fontenot, realizing just how close Clemson is to his office. Because the team is headquartered 45 minutes north of Atlanta, that campus is a little over an hour’s drive away. And in Fontenot’s mind, that made going to see Trevor Lawrence throw that Friday morning, five days after the Super Bowl, a no-brainer.
Sure, the chances of Lawrence slipping to the Falcons at No. 4 were shorter than the trip was and, no, this wasn’t even a real , with most other top Tigers prospects choosing not to take part in the workout. Still, Fontenot knew it’d be worth the hassle, and the mileage on a rental car, for reasons that went beyond getting a good look at a guy he won’t get.
“Number one, having a school like Clemson that close, with all those good players that they have, and all those good people, you have to take advantage of that,” Fontenot said Friday morning. “I mean, we got in the car and left, and it was a little over an hour to get there. And to get to talk to those coaches, I spent a lot of time with Dabo [Swinney], just talking to him on the field. They’ve done a hell of a job building that culture, and you look at our team and we have really good players on our team from there, and they’re great human beings.
“So getting there and getting to talk to them and spend time with them, that was really important. And I do value, hey, just getting to spend some time in a car with Dave and Arthur, getting to travel with them, getting to look at the quarterback up close and discuss him. I think all those things are important.”
Arthur, of course, is new Falcons coach Arthur Smith, and Dave is new OC Dave Ragone.
Two months ago, Fontenot didn’t know them. Today, there may not be any part of his job more important than getting to know them, and everyone around him, better than he does already. So, as he said, he got about 75 minutes on the way there and 75 minutes on the way back to learn more about his new co-workers, and the time in between those two commutes hearing the guys talk about football, quarterbacks and coaching.
This is a very weird year to be a first-time GM, given all that has come off the calendar over the last few months—be it the combine, “30” visits, college all-star games or private workouts—things that are seen as so vital to any GM, new or old, doing his job.
Fontenot’s way of handling it, very clearly, is about time, how he’s spending it and who he’s spending it with. In some ways, as he sees it, the change has allowed for he and his team to move faster through certain parts of the process, because so much can be, and has to be, done remotely right now. But in others, there’s nothing that’ll replace the sort of face-to-face interaction that’s been a part of a scout’s job for so long.
In this particular case, the shot to get that with Swinney, and with Ragone and Smith, made the decision to load up the SUV last month easy. And getting to see one of the best quarterback prospects in a generation was a nice bonus too.
